parasites

[MeggiesMom]

Hi there, my daughter's gecko (just shy of 2 years old) extruded some innards from her vent about 12 days ago, but just briefly -- she was licking, then the vent closed. So we took her to an exotic vet who does have experience with leopard geckos. They checked her for a blockage and didn't find one, then they checked for worms, and she tested positive. So they gave us a wormer to use for 3 days, then wait 10 days, then worm her again. She also chastized us for feeding too many meal worms (she LIKES them!) and not enough crickets. So we wormed her as instructed (second dose begins tomorrow), then cut back on the meal worms. Well, she went several days without eating, so I finally broke down and gave her a couple of meal worms which she gobbled up. Did I mention, she's fat. Not dragging on the floor fat, but 87 grams worth. She has eaten a few crickets over the past few days finally, but her overall intake is probably 1/3rd at most what it normally is.

I have two questions:
1. So the worms must've come in with the crickets or meal worms. How do I prevent her from getting them again? I know to change the bedding, etc, with this round of worming. But what's to prevent her from catching them from a future batch of crickets? Do you guys worm yours periodically?
2. She looks healthy in every way. Do I really need to worry about getting her to eat crickets instead of meal worms? She was probably eating 8 to 12 meal worms weekly and maybe 3 to 5 large crickets.

Thanks!

Meggie's mom

 

[shadowx362]

Worms come from crickets and so if your gecko likes meal worms then stick to them because they are easier to feed and do not carry worms. The only thing you need to know about meal worms is that you need to supplement them real good since they aren't "gut loaded" like crickets. Most breeders feed meal worms to their geckos(before the mealworms shortage) and so there shouldn't be a problem unless there is in fact Tainted meal worms.
Just stick to what your gecko likes.

 

[GeckoGathering]

Pinworms/female?

Hi there, my daughter's gecko (just shy of 2 years old) extruded some innards from her vent about 12 days ago, but just briefly -- she was licking, then the vent closed. So we took her to an exotic vet who does have experience with leopard geckos. They checked her for a blockage and didn't find one, then they checked for worms, and she tested positive. So they gave us a wormer to use for 3 days, then wait 10 days, then worm her again. She also chastized us for feeding too many meal worms (she LIKES them!) and not enough crickets. So we wormed her as instructed (second dose begins tomorrow), then cut back on the meal worms. Well, she went several days without eating, so I finally broke down and gave her a couple of meal worms which she gobbled up. Did I mention, she's fat. Not dragging on the floor fat, but 87 grams worth. She has eaten a few crickets over the past few days finally, but her overall intake is probably 1/3rd at most what it normally is.

I have two questions:



1. So the worms must've come in with the crickets or meal worms. How do I prevent her from getting them again? I know to change the bedding, etc, with this round of worming. But what's to prevent her from catching them from a future batch of crickets? Do you guys worm yours periodically?
2. She looks healthy in every way. Do I really need to worry about getting her to eat crickets instead of meal worms? She was probably eating 8 to 12 meal worms weekly and maybe 3 to 5 large crickets.

Thanks!

Meggie's mom

gecko (just shy of 2 years old) extruded some innards from her vent about 12 days ago, but just briefly -- she was licking, then the vent closed. So we took her to an exotic vet who does have experience with leopard geckos.

Maggie's Mom. Are you sure your gecko is a female? You said :

some innards from her vent about 12 days ago, but just briefly -- she was licking, then the vent closed.

Sounds like you are describing a peek at "the family jewels perhaps"??????????
..And if so are you sure you have a gecko experienced vet?.........Crickets naturally carry a pinworm and at certain strength is said to possibly help a gecko process food. But in heavy count it can be harmful to the gecko. It strengthens that count by usually eating the gecko feces. So the safest choice is feed meal worms. Or feed crickets you have gutloaded and keep all uneaten crickets removed, feces cleaned out, food for crickets in with the gecko.........or ALL OF THE ABOVE. I just stopped raising and feeding crickets as my choise. Others will point out why not to.
Now you get to make your choice..*******I am feeding my baby geckos 5 or 6 meal worms + 2 wax worms every other day so you don't seem to be overfeeding at all to me.... take care. HJ

 

[gothra]

Hi Meggie's mom,

Just want to share with you this bit of info.
There was a time when I thought my geckos had pinworms, as pinworm eggs are showing through in their feces. Our vet prescribed panacur once a week for 3 weeks. However, after all the doses, pinworm eggs are still showing up in follow up fecal tests; then we gave the geckos more doses of panacur which didn't help eliminating the problem. In the end, we discovered that my geckos do not carry pinworms, it was the roaches that I feed my geckos had pinworms (the geckos ingested pinworm eggs via the roaches and pooped it straight out). We stopped giving medicine to the geckos, and also stopped feeding roaches to them. After a couple weeks, all follow up tests were clean, no more pinworm eggs showed up. My vet then told me that pinworms are species specific, they have a direct life cycle, and so do not need an intermediate host. Therefore, if you suspect the crickets carry pinworms, they shouldn't do harm to you and your geckos.

If your gecko does have pinworms, then a few doses of panacur will do the job. Just make sure you keep everything VERY clean in the meantime.

 

[MeggiesMom]

We believe she is female because she doesn't have those arrow bump things, and the vet used a probe to explore her nether regions and some sort of "sexing tool" thing and said she is female. The extruded stuff was red and looked like the pictures of prolapse that are on TheGeckoSpot and are labeled as female intestinal prolapse. Man was I in a panic when I saw it. It was 7:30 pm on a Thursday, and by the time I tracked down a 24 hour emergency vet that said yes, they had one that was familiar with geckos, she was looking ok again. So we held off and waited til the next day to find one that really seemed qualified. Still, you know how it is. This particular vet did work with a breeding colony of leos and does only exotics, no cats and dogs. From her handling of her, she seemed like she has handled many before.

Her tech gave us a lecture about needing to make sure our UVB light was giving out the correct amount of UVB light, and I groaned since I am of the understanding that leos don't actually need UVB like others do. When the vet arrived, she commented the UVB isn't actually necessary for leos if food is adequately supplemented with vitamins. So I think she does know something about them.

The cricket option she gave us included all the things you mention below: gutloading, food for the crickets in the enclosure, removing feces immediately, etc, etc. I also posted in the housing section a question about paper towels because she does not like repticarpet because she feels it is too hard to keep clean and that you need to change and wash it daily. She strongly prefers paper towels or newspaper, changed daily. We changed to paper towels, but now the crickets hide in the folds and she doesn't find them. She's not a very good hunter cuz she doesn't have to hunt meal worms!!! I guess she's made her preference known.

So nobody just worms their leos on a regular basis? Maybe we should take a stool sample in periodically?

 

[gothra]

Try putting some weights on the four corners to hold down the paper towel or newspaper, so the crickets can't get under it. I don't deworm my geckos on a regular basis, but I do look at their feces myself at least once a year. I understand I'm no expert in spotting parasites and stuff, but if I see anything that looks unusual, I can get a fecal sample for proper vet check immediately.